I would worry far more if left to my own devices, but I have others to help distract me. Right now, that is Kirito and Asuna, but later it will be Sero, Kreno, and Bella. They should be able to keep me distracted so that I don’t worry too much about Mulan.

  I take care of feeding Kirito once Asuna has worn him out some so that the others can eat in peace. Mulan finished and left before anyone else even started eating, but that might cause a problem. If she shows up to bug Lizzy before Lizzy has had a chance to eat, Mulan will suffer for it.

  Lizzy wouldn’t do anything to her directly, but she has other ways to get back at someone. However, I am not going to say anything, Mulan will just have to learn the hard way. It will be a good lesson for her, as much as I hate being patient, it is an important ability.

  When they are done eating, Asuna takes Kirito into her room to play until he falls asleep. That frees the rest of us to head to bed to have our fun, which is the best distraction of all. I don’t worry about Mulan and the others at all until after the three girls are exhausted.

  Luckily, once they are asleep and I check on Mulan, she appears to be completely fine. In fact, as I am watching, Lizzy makes one last kill and then they call it a night. I watch until they are safely back at camp and then open a soulscape for the group not training with Damona.

  I was too focused on finishing my core last night and forgot to open one for the other group. They are probably upset with me, but I will make it up to them tomorrow night. I play around and then spend time with the girls before ending the soulscape and opening a second.

  The goddesses don’t mind me having missed a night, so the second soulscape goes smoothly. After I end it, I spend the rest of the night meditating and working on my core. The process is similar to what I needed to do before, but there are some differences.

  Working on it again allows me to see the differences this time and I try to modify my method. Instead of trying to upgrade my core, I am trying to get it to integrate with my body. However, at this stage there just isn’t enough information for me to fully understand the process.

  Core Integration Progress: 3%

  I am still not sure that my guess is right, but it does seem to be going that direction. It is still not enough progress for me to be sure, but my instincts are telling me I am right. Hopefully, with a few more nights of work, I will be able to learn more about the process.

  For now, since the girls are waking up, I end my meditation and join them for a round of fun. Then we join the others for breakfast and Mulan tells us about last night’s hunting. Apparently, Lizzy went higher on the side of the mountains to find stronger beasts to hunt.

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  She basically went as far as she could without actually entering the mountains. I can’t say that I am surprised, Lizzy is only staying out of the mountains because I asked her to. I just think that it is too dangerous for her to go into the mountains alone, there are too many beasts.

  I would bet on Lizzy against just about any one or two beasts, but more than that would be an issue. I would really like to explore the mountains with her, but it will have to wait until this stuff is over. I really hope that whatever the Magic Kingdom is worried about turns out to be something trivial.

  Or at least something that I can deal with quickly, so I will have time to explore. My wives are only going to put up with me being gone for so long and I am probably already pushing it. If they hadn’t worked out the schedule for spending time with me, I’d probably already be done.

  I guess that I will find out soon enough, although I am still expecting trouble in the Magic Kingdom. I doubt that I am going to be lucky enough for everything to go smoothly there. We aren’t even there yet, but I am already impatient with the crap I am probably going to have to deal with.

  At the first sign of something going wrong, I am just going to flatten whoever gets in my way. I will just bull through whatever crappy politics they attempt with pure strength. Luckily, they aren’t close enough to ever pose a threat to my lands, so I can get away with being rude.

  It might cause Amn and his allies some problems, but I’m sure that he can handle it. Besides, depending on how things go, the Magic Kingdom might not be capable of causing trouble. If they cause me serious problems, I will just dispel the entire city and let it collapse.

  I will feel pretty bad about all the innocents that will die if I do that, but I can live with it. Not all of them would die, but the death toll would be extreme, so I want to avoid that. However, that is going to depend entirely on what the Magic Kingdom does.

  I have a number of worries and an even greater number of plans depending on what happens. I just have to wait and see what happens, but the closer I get the more I worry about it. Even Mulan talking about her hunt can’t completely distract me from my worries.

  She is still talking about it after we have finished eating and the caravan is moving. Once we are aboard the carriage, Mulan starts taking out the stronger essences to show me. She and Lizzy killed several new beasts and their essences finally distract me from worrying.

  Unfortunately, none of them have a strong elemental affinity, but they are still new. I am still hoping that if I study enough different essences that I can learn more about them. One of the essences catches my eye, it has only two colors, but they are extra active.

  The two colors are also not as mixed as they normally are in other essences, which is new. I wonder if it is because the colors are active due to the higher energy of the essence. Either way, it is really interesting and I spend quite a bit of time studying it with Mulan.

  She agrees with my theory that the colors are separate because of the increased movement. Meaning, if I can figure out how to increase the energy of an essence, I could separate the colors easier. In fact, it might be possible to completely separate the colors if I can increase the energy enough.

  Of course, that is going to mean conducting more experiments, but that means more fun for me. Mulan and I quickly start discussing various methods to try to boost the energy of essence. We don’t start experimenting yet, it is better to brainstorm before trying anything.